Improvement in street-railway cars



wju. T. HUGHES.

Street Railway Cars.

N0. 134,060,- Paten ted Dec. 17, 1872.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM H. T. HUGHES, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK.

IMPROVEMENT IN STREET- -RAILWAY CARS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 134,060, dated December17, 1872.

.To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM H. T. HUGHES, of Brooklyn,in the county ofKings and State of New York, have invented a certain Improvement inRailway Cars, of which the following is a specification: Y

This invention is designed to provide a railway car capable of meetingthe requirements or tastes both of those who, under any givencircumstances, prefer an open, and of those who prefer a closed car. Itconsists in the combination, upon the ordinary wheeled support of acommon car, of an open-car body and a closed-car body, whereby thedesired object is secured.

Figure 1 in the drawing is a side view, and Fig. 2 is a verticallongitudinal section, of a railway car constructed according to myinvention.

. Similar letters of reference indicate correspondin g parts in bothfigures.

B is the frame which carries the floor and supports the other portionsof the superstructure of the vehicle, and which rests in the usualmanner upon wheels. This wheeled support may, when the car is to be usedon street railways, have at the front the usual platform 0 for thedriver, and be furnished with the ordinary or any suitable draftappliances. The roof D may extend over the whole area of the carintended for occupation by passengers, and near the center of the space,below it or at desired points along the length of the car, is provided atransverse partition, E, which thus divides the passenger-space into twoparts. One of these, preferably the front or forward one, as representedin the drawing, is inclosed both at front and sides, and, beingfurnished with seats F and also with doors and windows of anyappropriate form and size, constitutes of itself a closed-car body,affording the same protection to passengers as do cars comprising thewhole or nearly the whole available area of the car-floor. The otherportion of the space beneath the roof is open at sides and rear, andfurnished with transverse seats F, thereby constituting an open-car bodyaifordin g the same free circulation of air, freedom of vision, and thelike that characterize the so-called open cars, the bodies of which arewithout sides and the seats of which have an arrangement similar to thatjust described.

By this means a free choice in the same vehicle or car is afforded topassengers between an open and a closed car body, so that those desiringthe shelter and protection from dust, &c., afforded by the ordinaryclose car can obtain the same, while others-for example, whilesmoking-may avail themselves of the open portion with all the sameadvantages afforded by an open car of ordinary construction.

Easy access is had to either the open or closed portion of the car bymeans of a longitudinal step, G, provided at each side of the car at asuitable distance below the level of the floor and above the ordinarylevel of the street or ground on which the track is laid.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

A railway car, a portion of which is constructed as a close car andanother portion with its sides and seats open, substantially as shownand described.

WILLM. H. T. HUGHES. Witnesses:

CHAS. H. SoHooH, W. A. DIGKMAN.

